Barbados’ High Commissioner to Canada, Gline Clarke has cleared the air on his inability to take up his posting overseas, nearly two months after it was announced that his appointment had been reaffirmed.
The retired Member of Parliament for St George North told Barbados TODAY the reason for him not being able to begin work in Canada is beyond his control.
“There are no flights in Canada. I don’t even know what’s going on…the place is still shut down due to COVID restrictions. You can’t get into Canada right now. If you follow the guidelines, they say there is no travel between Providence province…there is no flight going into Canada or coming out…and that was so for the last month or two,” the High Commissioner stated.
Clarke’s posting was among a number of new Heads of Missions formally announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Dr Jerome Walcott in mid-March this year in keeping with Government’s focus on strengthening traditional bilateral relations and pursuing new ones.
In addition to Clarke, the other appointments were Alexander McDonald as High Commissioner to the Republic of Kenya and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Nairobi; Hallam Henry as Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China; Gabriel Abed as Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Francois Jackman as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at New York.
News of Government’s decision to send Clarke to Canada as High Commissioner came late last year from Prime Minister Mia Mottley when she addressed the St George North Branch annual general meeting at the St George Secondary School. She indicated then that Clarke would step down at September 30 from the seat he had represented since 1994.
The post of High Commissioner to Ottawa was formerly held for two years by Reginald Farley who has since returned to Barbados to be President of the Senate. (emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)
